I have a coworker who adapts old text adventure games into simple roleplaying games for his young daughters. Planetfall is their favorite.
When I was a kid my parents didn't have a lot of money, so instead of playing video games, I would design entire worlds on paper that looked very similar. Of course, I couldn't play them--the D&D aspect to this is pretty neat.
(I also designed my own cardboard Transformers that would actually transform! I was really proud of those. I remember I had little sliding bits, like revealing the robot's head.)
> I also designed my own cardboard Transformers that would actually transform!
Heh. I used to make paper Transformers that transformed. They were at least as fun as the real toys, and a lot more portable. I may even still have them somewhere in a box.
Later I graduated to making Lego Transformers that transformed. When I bequeathed my childhood Lego bin to my older son, it still had some Lego Transformers in it. I had to explain to him what Transformers were, because this was before the Michael Bay reboot.
> When I was a kid my parents didn't have a lot of money, so instead of playing video games, I would design entire worlds on paper that looked very similar.
This makes me smile. I actually did this as well in the 80s. I was inspired by games I saw on my friend's computer, so I'd fold a piece of notebook paper into 8 pieces (or 16 if you use both sides) and draw "screens" that you could move between. I'd tear off a small piece of paper and draw the player's character on it. I'd design the game during class-time, then I'd have my friend play it at recess. He'd move the character around and I'd change things around to the correct screens when he moved from screen to screen.
When I was a kid my parents didn't have a lot of money, so instead of playing video games, I would design entire worlds on paper that looked very similar. Of course, I couldn't play them--the D&D aspect to this is pretty neat.
(I also designed my own cardboard Transformers that would actually transform! I was really proud of those. I remember I had little sliding bits, like revealing the robot's head.)